Weekly Psyche

The Backlash

In human culture, when a wrong has been righted, we usually have a group that retaliates even greater. In psychology, we call it ‘the backlash’. I had some high schoolers come into the clinic and the mother was very upset and had wrote on the back of their weekly contract that she wanted the child charged for telling her to shut up. The male teenager, who was 17, couldn’t understand why his mother was so upset. I told him that it indicates an incredible amount of disrespect. His was reply was the when i’m talking to my father and say “ah, come on pops, shut up” he doesn’t seem to mind as much and he seems to banter with me.

I asked an older American to please explain this phenomenon; is it merely a difference in the sexes or a difference in the culture. The older man replied “no, the female has been abused within the social structures of our societies for so many centuries, that finally when equity has arrived within our civilization, that they seem to have a great retaliation for hearing that word that seems to have kept them in their place for so many centuries.” The backlash is a cultural phenomenon that is not to be explained but just to be understood and accepted and to be aware.

This is your Weekly Dr. B reminding you that, We are not alone.

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